Just Think

Delicious is more important than creative because everything’s been done before. You’re not going to reinvent the wheel. At this point, after the post molecular era and the compositionist era, where basically commercial artists have gone into the food business because its more lucrative for them financially. A lot of the artsy fartsy food is beautiful in pictures and some of it is beautiful in its presentation, but it’s soulless in the eating of it. Because it’s composition, it’s not cooking.

Don’t keep acting like you are the only one with a product trying to fill the consumers’ need. That’s just plain doubtful, in most cases the consumer has the choice of hundreds of competitors, and you need them to choose you. With that in mind, are you paying into a marketing scheme that simply states the statistics about your widget and doesn’t really differentiate you on any other meaningful level?

Stop Doing That.

It is time to change course, to stop pretending there are no competitors out there, there are. How about you compete with them by acknowledging their existence, you have nothing to lose because your product is better, right? If its not definitively better, stop worrying about marketing and start making it better… then come back and pick up here.

Still Reading?

Lets create a confrontation of sorts, an unabashed comparison, be unapologetic about being better and saying it out loud. Why? Because you are better and you deserve more of the market, because consumers are sick of hearing the same old marketing messages and they are tuning them out. Nothing stands out from the crowd like a bold honest confrontation, a person invested enough to do that with a better product will gain more customers. That’s that.

Some Ground Rules

First and foremost, be truly better. Don’t fake it, the only two people that will believe you if you are not truly better is yourself, and your mom, and that’s not a big enough market to succeed.

Don’t make it personal and petty, and don’t pick a fight with a small time operation. Nobody likes a bully, be the David to a Goliath.

Have fun with it, for example: incorporate pop culture or current events into the messaging, don’t come off as a technical nerd about your comparison.

Understand the difference between hostile confrontational and proud differentiation, do the latter.

The specifics are up to you, if you want to see what I would do you are in luck. We are currently running a few of these campaigns and I will follow up with a post of the best example in a few days. Until then provide a better product than a big competitor and don’t be afraid to tell people about it.

Here we are, today, a perfect time to try something new. Your business, your life, deserves it. To be honest even if what you try is an outright failure, if the product doesn’t sell, the new hire doesn’t work out, or the reception is just plain blah, you are ahead of the game. Now you know, you are not wondering what would happen.

Then you try something new again, this time armed with the knowledge of two very important things.

What did not work.

That failure isn’t a fate it is a step.

Let’s be honest though, you probably know this in your heart. You probably won’t fail in any spectacular way. Maybe it won’t be as big of a success as you dreamed right off the bat, but it likely won’t be a flop either.

Tell Fear to GTFO of your planning, and make an educated investment in the unknown, in yourself, and try something new. Today.

One of my favorite authors, Ryan Holiday has a brilliant list of things not to do, which featured this closing argument: As one philosopher put it, pretend that everyone else is hemmed in by predetermination but that you, and you alone, have been given free-will. Because when you give up the misguided notion that they are in control and focus solely on the fact that you in fact are in control, the whining petulance stops and the magnanimity can begin.

Now if you read the post, you will find a list of thirty things to stop doing which are more akin to everyday life, like moving on once you order your coffee instead of slowing down the line.

Lets take a pre-meditated turn off of our beaten path, and forge a new direction that creates surprise, builds trust, and forges connections.

You are the marketer, the story teller, the ambassador, the person responsible for the way your restaurant interacts with the public. You have lots to share, and lots of motivation for your community to love your place. So how can we improve our ability to break through, to create lasting loyal customers out of those that we encounter with our message?(P.S. it doesnt matter if online, in person, or in print)

We get there by building trust, and getting permission.

Think about it, how can we invest the time/energy/money in producing a piece of marketing material, whether a website, email, or old media ad without having cultivated an audience that wants to hear about it. The days of barging into peoples attention span are over.

Trust + Permission. The market is open to everyone. You can only be heard if the consumer decides to listen to you because of trust.

The Art of the Want

Everything your business does to communicate with your community is intensely personal to you, but not to the community, don’t forget that. It is really not about what you want, if it was you would just send out a postcard to everyone’s house that said; “I want you to come eat at my restaurant tonight.” The want we are after is the want of a guest to hear more about what you are doing, to hear about what you are doing in the future. You have to earn that want, by delivering what you promise in a way that builds trust. Everyday my goal is to build trust, forge connections, and create surprise in the way my businesses interact with our guests. That goal is the fertile ground where the want that drives my business grows.

Forge Connections… Why use the word forge? I say that because once you create them they are iron clad, for good or for bad, these are the stories that people associate with you and your business, they are the stories they tell their friends and family, but most importantly they are the stories they tell themselves. Recently a woman called the restaurant early in the morning while I was doing some work in my office, when I answered I could tell she was stressed. She had forgotten to order a gift certificate for her Boss’s sister’s birthday that was that day. She was going to try and get someone to come get it from the restaurant and deliver it for her, and wanted to make sure we were there that early. So I said: “I can tell you are stressed, I hate that feeling, why dont you let me deliver it for you.” She was stunned, relieved and thrilled. I got the information for the delivery address and her address to mail a receipt. I took a ride and delivered the certificate, then swung by the woman’s office and delivered her a gift card valid for a martini on my tab that read: “I think you could use this today.” She was floored, and a connection was born. I guess you can say I forged a connection and created surprise all at the same time. With that I had permission to communicate with her in the future, and the best part? It was fun. You have to do something different, something original, something you create, for it to resonate and help you reach your goals.

Get the hell out of the safe middle, dance on the edges. Challenge the status quo.

As the year comes to an end upgrade your restaurants’ tech with these easy to install products for a more efficient, more appealing, and more secure 2015.

Restaurants Lighting, with its long hours of all bulbs burning electricity is a major expense. Upgrade to LED bulbs today and start saving up to 80% of the electricity immediately. This is one of the easiest ways to upgrade your space. Be careful not to get lights of a cold temperature that change the atmosphere of your space, I upgraded some halogen bulbs to these warm LEDs and have enjoyed their light, the electricity savings, and the quality of the build. Here is an amazon link:

Tired of your clunky old emergency lights with the huge, expensive, lead batteries that never seem sto be charged when it is inspection time? Yeah I was too, that is why I upgraded my restaurant’s emergency lights to these sleek, affordable, LED units that uses small easy to find rechargeable batteries. Oh and they always seem to be charged anyhow. These are a quick and easy install especially when you are just replacing an existing unit.

More and more customers expect to have a wifi network to use at the restaurant’s they frequent, whether it is a kid contently playing with their grandmother’s iPhone or a a business dinner that needs access to the cloud wifi is becoming a necessity and you don’t want guests choosing to go elsewhere when they need it. You also don’t want guest use to clog up your business network and or create any vulnerabilities in your system. That is why you need to get a wifi router that has dual networks, one for guests and employees and one for your business systems. This is the one that I recently upgraded to and I can fully stand behind its performance.

What upgrades are you thinking of making, want some advice on what I would do? Hit me up on Twitter @spirocks and I will be sure to get back to you.

Too many business owners have an online strategy which relies on garnering as many likes as possible for their Facebook page. This is wrought with peril and here is why:

At any time, and they do it often, Facebook alters how you connect with these people to further their goals. Which all revolve around making money off of these connections. They want you to rent your friends, plain and simple.

The answer for most of you: Build your email list. Start today, make it worth their while. How much should you invest in time and money? Answer one question: What is a permanent connection to your customers worth to you?

Instagram has held the distinction as the fastest growing social media network for over a year now. For brands like yours, it puts the ability to get close to your targeted local audience in the palm of your hand.

This requires a healthy dose of inspiration be it artsy, humorous, insightful etc… it also requires you to have a solid understanding of the ins and outs of Instagram. That is what this post is about.

1) Follow the most influential local Instagrammers, interact with them.

Start by finding those that have tagged your business in a post, either by mentioning its name, or by geotagging photos at your place of business. These are happy customers who you must follow and interact with. Like their photos and let them know you are fans of them too, that good feeling is the beginning of an amazing instagram relationship.

Look for others in your community who are active on Instagram and follow them, like their content, get to know what they find interesting, finding customers that will sing your praises is a great thing. Remember you are great at what you do, once they give your business a try you will make them wish you had found them on Instagram earlier.

2) Hashtags are key to getting found, here is how to use them.

While I have a post devoted to this topic on its own, I will give you the cliff notes version here. Focus on finding the relevant hashtags for your post, making up a funny word may be entertaining for your followers but it isnt going to get searched for often if at all. Consider a fitness related post that included the hashtag #beeeasstmodelegdaaaaze versus #squats #legday #workout… clearly the latter post would transcend and be found more often. Studies have shown that including three or more hashtags in your post drastically increases how many people find it. In fact up to 7 are acceptable to Instagram users.

As far as local marketing goes, use hashtags that relate to the town/state/university that makes up your target audience. For instance I use the #andover hashtag frequently for my restaurants in downtown andover. It both relates to those who live in town, and to the prominent boarding school Phillips Academy Andover that is in town.

3) Pull back the Curtain, and do it frequently.

Intersperse images of what you are selling with behind the scenes pics of your team, your office, previews of future offerings… let your audience feel privy to your process and in turn they will feel a part of it. For instance showing pictures of our recently launched sunday brunch dishes is a good way to let people know how amazing they are, but showing them pictures of a bar full of people having a blast eating them is another angle. Those ‘product in motion’ or ‘experience’ images are often even more impactful. Try something different and let your audience look forward to finding your next image… be you, be human, share you business story. It may be your everyday, but to a lot of people it is very interesting and your providing a window into the happenings can make them feel much more comfortable taking the plunge and becoming a customer.